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Kanye West Booed for Likening Paparazzi Harassment to Rape

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It’s never a good decision to compare anything to rape — but that is exactly what Kanye West did while filling in for a sick Drake at the Wireless Festival in London over the weekend. During one of his now-standard Yeezus monologues, the rapper sounded off for 20 minutes on themes he’s touched on before (his gripes with the fashion industry, consumerism, the media, and the paparazzi) only, according to Moviepilot, he took them to a dark, new place with this.

“I don’t care what you do in life, everybody needs a day off, everybody has the right to say, ‘You know what, I need a minute to breathe’. I want to bring my family to the movies without 30 motherf—ers following me. Everybody here, they like sex right? Sex is great when you and your partner are like, ‘Hey, this is what we both want to do’. But if one of those people don’t want to do that, what is that called? That’s called rape. That is called violation. So if I walk around and say look sir, I’m not feeling so good today, I need some space, can you please not fuck with me today? I need cut-off space, not violation,”

Kanye might have fumbled with that metaphor but he at least managed to pull off another one, ironically while defending himself against how the media portrays him. “The media paint me as if I’m some sort of villain or like I’ve got a bad bone in my body,” he said as reported by Billboard. “I’m really more of a porcupine or a blowfish. And the photos they always take is when that blowfish is blown up or when that porcupine is defending itself from the lies and the control and the manipulation that you deal with if you are an artist. Sometimes my only response is to go ‘Aaargh!'”

To be fair, Kanye does appear to be coming from a place of frustration — rather than anger without reason — whenever he’s airing his grievances on-camera. As off-putting as his delivery may be, he’s the only artist on his scale who’s championed important conversations about racism and classism in fashion, the toxicity of consumerism, and the necessity for paparazzi laws protecting children.

If you want to witness Yeezus’ wrath, check out a video of his rant below.